Atlanta (CNN) - The code-red siren blaring in Israel on Tuesday hit close to home for Rabbi Adam Starr.

His wife and daughter were visiting the Jewish state Tuesday, where Israelis have been darting for cover from daily Hamas rocket fire.

Starr breathed easy after he got off the phone with his wife.

"She's in Jerusalem," said Starr, leader of the Young Israel of Toco Hills synagogue in Atlanta. "She called me to tell me she is OK."

But he and others in his congregation and across the country remain anxious over the latest round of fighting between Israel and Hamas.

"We all have many friends and family in Israel," Starr said, referring to his congregants. "We're seeing on Facebook and Twitter our good friends and what they are going through, the complexities in trying to explain this to their young children."

Starr's angst underscores the close bonds between the American Jewish community and Israel, a relationship that predates the founding of the Jewish state in 1948.

The bonds are underscored by their size. The world's largest Jewish community is in Israel at nearly 6 million people, according to estimates. The U.S. Jewish community is the second most populous at an estimated 5 million plus.

After Israel kicked off its offensive last week to stop Hamas rocket attacks on Israeli communities, Starr and others in the U.S. Jewish community sent an SOS across the United States: Help Israelis. Send donations. Demonstrate for the Jewish state. Let our brothers and sisters in Israel know they're not alone.

Jewish groups staged rallies in cities across the United States, including Chicago, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles. More than $5 million in pledges to help the battered southern Israel communities has poured in, according to the Jewish Federations of North America. Jewish leaders have traveled to Israel to show their support, it said.

After four years of continued hostility, Ceren said, there is more of a clear-eyed view of the perceived motives of Hamas, regarded by the United States and Israel as a terrorist group that is backed by Iran.

The 2008-09 operation failed to loosen Hamas' hold on power in Gaza. The militant rocket attacks from the territory ramped up year by year.

Hamas remained staunchly anti-Israel, and Israel's economic blockade to choke off the delivery of weapons from abroad has generated grass-roots support for the militant group.

"Now that naïveté has become impossible to justify," Ceren said. "The claim that Hamas can be peeled away from Iran doesn't pass the laugh test."

Israel has massed troops at the Gaza border and has threatened a ground offensive. Even though American Jews widely support Israel's right to defend itself from rocket fire coming from Gaza, there is disagreement about the best way to do that. Prior to the recently announced cease-fire between Hamas and Israel, there was much hand-wringing over the wisdom of Israeli ground troops re-entering Gaza.

Some hope a ground war will be avoided, but it's a hard call.

"It seems to be a no-win situation," said Max Rosenthal, active in the small Jewish community of Huntsville, Alabama.

Israel can't live with thousands of rockets coming in every single day, he said. And it faces the challenge of trying to thwart Hamas without killing "huge amounts of people."

"If we go in with a truce, it'll be OK for a few months, then they'll start over again, they'll get more rockets in."

But Rosenthal and other U.S. Jews stress that the destruction of Israel is Hamas' avowed goal. And the future he sees is one of constant conflict.

"There's a feeling this is not going to end well, one way or the other," he said.

"My own feeling is a feeling of despair. I don't see any way of resolving it other than going in and wiping out Gaza and that is certainly not what anyone wants to do."

The executive director of J Street, a Washington-based advocacy group which bills itself as "the political home for pro-Israel, pro-peace Americans," questions whether further military action by Israel "would end the rockets and make Israel more secure" after Cast Lead.

"Today, rockets are more numerous and powerful. Israel is more isolated in its region and more ostracized around the world," said Jeremy Ben-Ami, J Street executive director.

"Only a political resolution to the century-old conflict with the Palestinians resulting in two states living side by side can end the conflict. Without that, in a few short years, we'll be right back here again: anger deeper, rockets more powerful, and political forces yet more extreme."

There's no question that Israel has a right to defend itself, just like any other sovereign nation, said Lindy Miller Crane, a member of Atlanta's Jewish community.

"If rockets were fired to the United States from Cuba, I would hope that the U.S. would react," she said.

Yet, like many Jews who consider themselves politically liberal, she is "ambivalent and conflicted" about how to achieve peace.

If and when a cease-fire comes together, she's worried about the follow-through.

She said that's because it seems as though no progress has been made to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian issue since the 2008 Israeli military operation in Gaza.

It's like the movie "Groundhog Day," Crane said.

She believes that if Israel can start addressing issues of racism and inequality, this will help the Jewish state initiate a strategy that will bring permanent peace with Palestinians.

"It's something that's going to have to happen," said Crane. "When I think about the future of Israel - peace with the Palestinians is one aspect of that."

Israel has negotiated with the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority, which runs the government in the West Bank. A main stumbling block to an Israeli-Palestinian peace has been the existence and expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

There is vehement disagreement among U.S. Jews about Fatah and its motivations.

Fatah casts itself as distinct from Hamas, which calls for the destruction of Israel (Fatah does not). But they aren't much different, according to Roz Rothstein, co-founder and CEO of pro-Israel group StandWithUs.

Just read and listen to Fatah's anti-Israel rhetoric, educational system, and media, she said.

They "don't acknowledge there's an Israel next door," she said.

Israel "can get tough on Hamas" and weaken it politically by working with the Palestinian Authority - which is dominated by Hamas' rival, Fatah - toward creating an Israel and Palestinian state, wrote Peter Beinart for the Daily Beast.

"The problem is that in order to make Hamas suffer for opposing the two-state solution, Israel's government would have to truly embrace that solution," he wrote.

But he didn't hold out any hope that Israel would do that.

"Taking a hard line against Hamas requires taking a hard line against the settlements - and at the end of the day, this Israeli government is soft on them both," he wrote.

Near the war but far from the political ferment, Jodi Mansbach, an Atlanta urban planner, sat in a Tel Aviv cafe this week.

Her 16-year-old son is spending a semester at an Israeli high school, and she was visiting him for the Thanksgiving holiday.

After the conflict started, her son had to be transferred from his school in Be'er Sheva, in the southern Israel danger zone, to Tel Aviv - a relatively safer location, despite a bus bomb and air raid sirens.

Mansbach admires the cool way her son's teachers and counselors and Israelis in general cope with fear. They know how to handle life amid air raid sirens, shelters and rocket fire.

"It's so much more scary on the news," she said.

She also draws inspiration from people of other nations, tourists and business people from places like Sweden and Germany, who share her hotel in Tel Aviv.

"The American Jewish community should take a cue from the rest of the world. They are here," she said, referring to Jewish and non-Jewish visitors.

"They are not letting the conflict get in the way. To me, that's incredibly inspiring."

soundoff(619 Responses)

Atheism is not healthy for children and other living things

Prayer changes things
Proven

November 25, 2012 at 5:48 pm |

hal 9001

I'm sorry, "Atheism is not healthy for children and other living things", but your assertions regarding atheism and prayer are unfounded. Using my Idiomatic Expression Equivalency module (IEE), the expression that best matches the degree to which your assertions may represent truths is: "TOTAL FAIL".

I see that you repeat these unfounded statements with high frequency. Perhaps the following book can help you:

Prayer does not; you are such a LIAR. You have NO proof it changes anything! A great example of prayer proven not to work is the Christians in jail because prayer didn't work and their children died. For example: Susan Grady, who relied on prayer to heal her son. Nine-year-old Aaron Grady died and Susan Grady was arrested.

An article in the Journal of Pediatrics examined the deaths of 172 children from families who relied upon faith healing from 1975 to 1995. They concluded that four out of five ill children, who died under the care of faith healers or being left to prayer only, would most likely have survived if they had received medical care.

The statistical studies from the nineteenth century and the three CCU studies on prayer are quite consistent with the fact that humanity is wasting a huge amount of time on a procedure that simply doesn’t work. Nonetheless, faith in prayer is so pervasive and deeply rooted, you can be sure believers will continue to devise future studies in a desperate effort to confirm their beliefs.

November 26, 2012 at 9:17 am |

PRISM 1234

And so it will be that even if the whole world gangs up against Israel, yet He that keeps adn watches Israel never slumbers nor sleeps. He will not forsake His people, which HE brought into the land He GAVE to their forefathers. Heaven and earth will pass away, but God's word will not, and it will be fulfilled.....

Father God, protect your people Israel, and their land, send the legions of Your mighty angels with flaming swords to surround your people and protect the land you gave them. Let the weapons of their enemies turn backwards, and put into them the spirit of confusion, so that their weapons will be turned against each other.

Protect all those who are innocent and have no hatred eventhose who are in the camp of their enemies, and shield them from harm. And through all the trials and tribulations, let the hearts of Your people Israel become humble before You so that they may hear Your voice and recognize their Messiah, Yeshua, Christ the Lord, whom they rejected, and yet, He has not forgotten them nor forsaken them....Soften their hearts, Lord God, so that they will not miss Him this time...
May the God of peace send His peace upon Israel and His people,
and may the blessings of God be upon those who bless Israel and take up for them!
In the Name of Yeshua, Christ the LORD , Amen!

November 25, 2012 at 3:10 pm |

End Religion

Why did god command Mary's child be named Immanuel but then it was named Jesus? Even Mary, the 12 year old r@ped by god, didn't listen to god's commands. Why should anyone else live by the commandments of a character of fiction?

November 26, 2012 at 12:53 pm |

Peter Beck

"A main stumbling block to an Israeli-Palestinian peace has been the existence and expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank." I'm surprised Mr. Sterling was allowed to include this sentence, otherwise a one sided story. Instead of campaign after campaign to send piles of money to support poor little victim Israel, it's supporters could better provide for it's long term survival by supporting a peaceful Palestinian state, and I don't mean the tattered, swiss cheese remnant left by the relentless creep of illegal Israeli settlements. Stop supporting fortress Israel, fight instead for neighbor Israel.

November 25, 2012 at 1:35 pm |

Atheism is not healthy for children and other living things

Prayer changes things .

November 24, 2012 at 4:43 am |

hal 9001

I'm sorry, "Atheism is not healthy for children and other living things", but your assertions regarding atheism and prayer are unfounded. Using my Idiomatic Expression Equivalency module (IEE), the expression that best matches the degree to which your assertions may represent truths is: "TOTAL FAIL".

I see that you repeat these unfounded statements with high frequency. Perhaps the following book can help you:

I'm Told I Have Dementia: What You Can Do... Who You Can Turn to...

November 24, 2012 at 7:18 pm |

kindness

This is my experience... Thank you.

MY personal testimony.
A thought to consider without an ego response

I Accepted Jesus christ as my lord and saviour. You never know how soon is too late. Transcend the worldly illusion of enslavement.
The world denounces truth....

Accepting Jesus Christ (for me) resulted in something like seeng a new colour. You will see it .....but will not be able to clearly explain it to anyone else..... Its meant to be that way to transend any selfism within you.

Also... much the world arranges "surrounding dark matter into something to be debated" in such a way that protects/inflates the ego.

The key is be present and transcend our own desire to physically see evidence. We don't know anyways by defending our own perception of dark matter.

Currently.... most of us are constructing our own path that suits our sin lifestyle. Were all sinners. Knowing that we are is often an issue. But both christians and non are sinners. Even once we are saved by christs merciful grace we will still experience adversity to mold us to adhering to the truth.
We will slip... But not fall of the ship ...carrying us onward to perfection in christs grace.

We don't like to Let go and let god. We want control to some degree. This is what Jesus asks us to do. "Follow me".
It's the hardest thing to do... but is done by letting the truth of scripture lead you (redemptive revelation)... as I said .

Try reading corinthians and see if it makes sense to you. Try it without a pre conceived notion of it being a fairy tale.
See the truth...
do we do what it says in todays society... is it relevant... so many have not recently read and only hinge their philosophy on what they have heard from some other person...which may have been full of arogance pride or vanity..

Just think if you can find any truth you can take with you ....in any of these things. When you die your riches go to someone who will spend away your life..... You will be forgotten.... history will repeat iteslf.... the greatest minds knowledge fade or are eventually plagerzed..... your good deeds will be forgotten and only give you a fleeting temporary reward . your learned teachings are forgotten or mutated..... your gold is transfered back to the rullers that rule you through deception. Your grave will grow over . This is truth .

Trancsend your egoism and free yourself from this dominion of satan. Understand you are a sinner and part of the collective problem of this worldly matrix... Repent.... Repent means knowing (to change) The Holy spirit (within) will convict you beyond what you think you can do by yourself. Grace is given to those who renounce the world. That are" in" the world but not "of " the world.

Faith comes by Reading or Hearing the word of god from the bible . Ask Jesus in faith for dicernment and start reading the new testament... You will be shocked when you lay down your preconceived notions and ....see and hear truth ... see how christ sets an example ... feel the truth....

Read Ecclesiastes. Read romans or corinthians.

You cant trancend your own egoism by adapting a world philosophy to suit your needs. Seek the truth in Christ.

Sell all your cleverness and purchase true bewilderment. You don't get what you want ....you get what you are by faith above reason in christ.

I promise this has been the truth for me. In Jesus christ .

Think of what you really have to lose. ...your ego?

Break the Matrix of illusion that holds your senses captive.

once you do . you too will have the wisdom of God that comes only through the Holy Spirit. Saved By grace through Faith. Just like seeing a new colour.... can't explain it to a transient caught in the matrix of worldly deception.
You will also see how the world suppresses this information and distorts it

You're all smart people . I tell the truth. Its hard to think out of the box when earthly thinking is the box.
I'ts a personal free experience you can do it free anytime . Don't wait till you are about to die.. START PUTTING YOUR TREASURES WHERE THEY REALLY MATTER >
Its awsome and It's just between you and Jesus

my testimony

Romans 10:9

"If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved

Last eve I passed beside a blacksmith’s door,
And heard the anvil ring the vesper chime;
The, looking in, I saw upon the floor
Old hammers, worn with beating years of time.
“How many anvils have you had,” said I,
“To wear and batter all these hammers so?”
“Just one,” said he, and then with twinkling eye,
“The anvil wears the hammers out, you know.”
And so, thought I, the anvil of God’s Word,
For ages skeptic blows have beat upon;
Yet, though the noise of falling blows was heard,
The anvil is unharmed – the hammers gone.

Truth is..exclusive

November 23, 2012 at 6:40 pm |

Jesus freaker

Try reading 'Jesus Interupted' by Bart Erhman.

November 24, 2012 at 10:28 am |

Seth

From your grammar, syntax, and word choice, I would point to the source of your communicative frustration as perhaps more basic and than the sublime ineffability of Jesus.

November 25, 2012 at 1:43 pm |

The Life of 3.16

WOW Seth, you really got him good.

November 26, 2012 at 3:06 pm |

Pravda

It is sad that those who are against Muslim terrorism, support it against Israel. For the uneducated, there was already a two state solution, agreed to by Muslim leaders in the early 1900's that created TRANSJORDAN. Please look it up and educate yourself. Islamic terrorists will not be happy until Israel is destroyed. WAKE UP!

November 23, 2012 at 5:06 pm |

Reality

From another blog: A simple, safe and easy solution:

Considering that there is no valid claims for either side for the land : (see the previous reviews of the New Torah for Modern Minds etc.)

"American Muslims agree to leave the United States in a one-for-one exchange for Jews from Israel."

November 23, 2012 at 11:33 am |

Actualy Reality

http://www.aish.com/jw/mo/Photo-Fraud-in-Gaza.html

November 23, 2012 at 2:57 pm |

Reality

Israel's formation was approved by the UN in 1948. Israel should honor the original UN agreement and live within the described borders. Considering the hate generated by passages in the koran and OT, erecting dividing walls between Muslims and Jews should continue. UN forces should control these walls.

And Jerusalem should be made into an international city under the control and protection of the UN.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

November 23, 2012 at 11:23 am |

Reality

Some added 21st century reality:

origin: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F20E1EFE35540C7A8CDDAA0894DA404482 NY Times review and important enough to reiterate.

New Torah For Modern Minds

“Abraham, the Jewish patriarch, probably never existed. Nor did Moses. (prob•a•bly
Adverb: Almost certainly; as far as one knows or can tell).

The entire Exodus story as recounted in the Bible probably never occurred. The same is true of the tumbling of the walls of Jericho. And David, far from being the fearless king who built Jerusalem into a mighty capital, was more likely a provincial leader whose reputation was later magnified to provide a rallying point for a fledgling nation.

Such startling propositions - the product of findings by archaeologists digging in Israel and its environs over the last 25 years - have gained wide acceptance among non-Orthodox rabbis. But there has been no attempt to disseminate these ideas or to discuss them with the laity - until now.

The United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, which represents the 1.5 million Conservative Jews in the United States, has just issued a new Torah and commentary, the first for Conservatives in more than 60 years. Called "Etz Hayim" ("Tree of Life" in Hebrew), it offers an interpretation that incorporates the latest findings from archaeology, philology, anthropology and the study of ancient cultures. To the editors who worked on the book, it represents one of the boldest efforts ever to introduce into the religious mainstream a view of the Bible as a human rather than divine doc-ument.

The notion that the Bible is not literally true "is more or less settled and understood among most Conservative rabbis," observed David Wolpe, a rabbi at Sinai Temple in Los Angeles and a contributor to "Etz Hayim." But some congregants, he said, "may not like the stark airing of it." Last Passover, in a sermon to 2,200 congregants at his synagogue, Rabbi Wolpe frankly said that "virtually every modern archaeologist" agrees "that the way the Bible describes the Exodus is not the way that it happened, if it happened at all." The rabbi offered what he called a "LITANY OF DISILLUSION”' about the narrative, including contradictions, improbabilities, chronological lapses and the absence of corroborating evidence. In fact, he said, archaeologists digging in the Sinai have "found no trace of the tribes of Israel - not one shard of pottery."

November 23, 2012 at 11:26 am |

Reality

Continued from above:

Mohammed was an illiterate, womanizing, lust and greed-driven, warmongering, hallucinating Arab, who also had embellishing/hallucinating/plagiarizing scribal biographers who not only added "angels" and flying chariots to the koran but also a militaristic agenda to support the plundering and looting of the lands of non-believers.

This agenda continues as shown by the ma-ssacre in Mumbai, the as-sas-sinations of Bhutto and Theo Van Gogh, the conduct of the seven Muslim doctors in the UK, the 9/11 terrorists, the 24/7 Sunni suicide/roadside/market/mosque bombers, the 24/7 Shiite suicide/roadside/market/mosque bombers, the Islamic bombers of the trains in the UK and Spain, the Bali crazies, the Kenya crazies, the Pakistani “koranics”, the Palestine suicide bombers/rocketeers, the Lebanese nutcases, the Taliban nut jobs, the Ft. Hood follower of the koran, and the Filipino “koranics”.

And who funds this muck and stench of terror? The warmongering, Islamic, Shiite terror and torture theocracy of Iran aka the Third Axis of Evil and also the Sunni "Wannabees" of Saudi Arabia.

If Israel has one square meter of ground, peace will not be secured. The Arabs will not be satisfied until Israel is pushed into the sea. Iran stirs the pot and it is the Arabs in "Palastine" that are punished. Iran wants those people in poverty. It fits their agenda.

We cannot be reminded of the Liberty incident often enough. I was a young active duty sailor then on the other side of the world, but I remember it and the subsequent coverup by LBJ. Thank you.

November 25, 2012 at 3:45 pm |

SeeNend

Egypt must not let Iranian-made weapons enter Gaza.

November 23, 2012 at 1:55 am |

Frederick1337

"After Israel kicked off its offensive last week to stop Hamas rockets on Israeli communities, "
Extremely flawed comment. Israel murdered a Hamas man and several civilians before Hamas fired a single rocket. Please get your facts straight.

November 23, 2012 at 12:06 am |

Paul

Freddy, its you who has to get his facts straight. Israel has been taking fire from Gaza for years and it was only after the number of rockets started to intensify over the past few weeks leading up to this incident, that Israel responded and took out that terrorist who led the militant wing of Hamas. Those are the facts. You can try to distort them as much as you want, but the facts are there for everyone to see. That targeted killing did not come out of nowhere. It was a direct response to the increasing and consistent bombardment of southern Israel.

November 23, 2012 at 10:31 am |

How's this for truth Fred

http://www.aish.com/jw/mo/Photo-Fraud-in-Gaza.html

November 23, 2012 at 2:59 pm |

JoJo

I find it hilarious that uneducated people who have absolutely no clue about the current (From 1911 to present day) history of "Palestine". Look up the British Mandate, and Transjordan. The land is Israels. Now look up the Holocaust and what side many Muslims fought on in WW2. I'll give you a hint there were 2 Muslim Nazi SS Divisions. The attacks against Israel are nothing more than a modern Holocaust against Israel by Muslims...

November 22, 2012 at 10:58 pm |

"The attacks against Israel are nothing more than a modern Holocaust against Israel by Muslims..." The ones you call SS are the ones behind the barbed wire this time. But I see your point. The Holocaust will never end as long as there are people who want to be its victims.

November 22, 2012 at 11:26 pm |

Frederick1337

From where do you get this soviet concocted ideology of dialectical materialism? Hmmm, perhaps Warsaw?

November 23, 2012 at 12:08 am |

JoJo

Israel's "attack" on Gaza. CNN is so biased and clueless. "Palestine" is not a people but a location that was created in Roman times. The area the is now Israel, Jordan and some of Syria was called "Palestine". This included Jews, so technically Jews are "Palestinians" too. When Britain defeated the Turks in WW1, they decided to give "Palestine" is the Jews. Muslims whined, so they decided to create a 2 state solution (sound familiar??). 75% of the land that was promised to the Jews was given to Muslims, to create a Jewish and Muslim states. Now Israel and Transjordan (eventually just Jordan). Of course there was no peace, as there will be no peace giving Israel's land to Muslims. Radical Muslims want Israel destroyed...

November 22, 2012 at 10:50 pm |

American

Under so much pro-Israeli pressure we kept hearing about suffering on both sides, however now, in the end when we can see the damage we realize that this was just an unilateral killing of Gaza population by Israel.

The CNN Belief Blog covers the faith angles of the day's biggest stories, from breaking news to politics to entertainment, fostering a global conversation about the role of religion and belief in readers' lives. It's edited by CNN's Daniel Burke with contributions from Eric Marrapodi and CNN's worldwide news gathering team.